Is Democracy a viable form of government?

[RO]

I'm not too experienced with this version of the game, so I may overlook something.

I played England and went for Democracy. I shared the continent with the Japs, who decided that I had to go and delcared war. After a lengthy defense my cities started to fall into disorder because of war weariness, and I had to abandon Democracy in favour of Communism <G>.

This leads me to the conclusion that Democracy will - in the long run - not be a viable goverment in the game, as it seems to be next to impossible to avoid war given the (stupid) performance of the AI civs. The same ought to apply to the Republic.

Am I wrong?

[Illyrien]

In Civ3 there are no ultimate government. You have to decide what you want to do. Do you want to go to war then go Communist, if you prefer peace then Democrazy is the way to go.

With police stations and Womens Suffrage you should be able to have war for quite some time, especially if you have some luxury goods and Luxury% But in the long run, your democrazy will collaps...

Personally I use Democrazy most of the time even war time, as long was I have a chance of ending the war.

[ledj]

When I know that I will win (normally space race) without any war effort I will negotiate a peace treaty and change to Demo. This is normally when I rushed the Hoover Dam with a Great leader. The major advantage of a Demo government in this game is the improved speed of the workers. You can build railroad all over the place. Do not engage a prolonged war during Demo.

[Shaka II]

It's nice to have a religous civ like Babylonians, so that you can switch govt types in 1 turn without unrest. Otherwise, like Illyrien says, in democracy you want women's suffrage, etc. and a shorter war.

Also, unrest under a democracy happens faster if you declare war first vs. being attacked on home turf.

I try to stick it out with democracy, but when the revolts start, I switch to communism, and then back to democracy after war ends. The game is not as friendly for conquest and expansion as CivII, so I usually end up going for space victory. Maybe a patch will improve this.

[Rakso]

The AI in my game seems to enjoy moving and moving units through my territory, so I can get him to declare war on me instead by making him move them out again and again.

I got the Women's Suffrage Wonder and cranked the luxuries a bit up and got a war going long enough to wipe out four other Civs on a continent.

Even when revolts start, you can change surplus guys to Entertainers. If you capture luxuries, you only have to worry about revolts in larger cities, anyway. Counting Entertainers carefully can give you a few more turns which can put you in a good position to have the opponent give up cities in exchange for peace.

[Kc7mxo]

I've had a couple games where I used monarcy till the modern age because I was at war almost constantly.

It was only at regent, but those games were delightfully easy. I didn't even mind my advanced units getting used up by the ai's units! I was having quite a time.

[player1]

LUXURY is the key.

Playing wars in Republic with 4 or less luxuries is suicidal.
Chose Monarchy, or even Despotism (if you like pop-rushing).

[C Chulainn]

Incidentally, in Civ3 it's called UNIVERSAL Suffrage...